Historic Walking Tours of Maynard

With the nice weather hopefully holding for a while, this is a great opportunity to try one of the Historical Commission's "Walking Tours of Maynard." The tours were compiled by Peg Brown, one of our town's local history experts and features sites all over Maynard and its unique past. 

I just did most of the New Village and Maynard's Hill tour last week. I thought it was interesting to note that the first ever Maynard Public Library was actually located on the site where Jarmo's Auto Repair is on Acton St. It was housed in part of the Acton St. School that was torn down in 1902 and the present building was erected. I hope to do more as the spring weather melts away all this snow!

There are five tours available and map brochures can be picked up at the Reference Desk here at the library. They can also be downloaded via the Historical Commission's website here. Here is the list of tours along with their length in distance and estimated time to complete:

1. Main Street and The Mill (2 miles, 1:15)
2. Assabet Village (2 miles, 1:45)
3. New Village and Maynard’s Hill (1.9 miles, 1:30)
4. Great Road (West: 2 miles, 1:30; East: 2.25 miles, 2:15)
5. Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge (varies)

These tours are designed to be printed on 8.5 x 14 inch paper (legal size).  They can be printed on regular 8.5 x 11 paper but may be hard to read.

Happy walking!

Facebook Workshop Powerpoint from last night

Because of the weather, I know some people weren't able to attend the Facebook for Beginners workshop at the library last night.

We'll run another one sometime in May, but here is the Powerpoint that you can follow along with if you weren't able to make it or just want to review.

Figuring out facebook_workshop from jrobichaud01

We'll also be having a "Taking on Twitter" workshop coming up on Tuesday, April 23rd at 7pm. During the program we'll show you how to set up an account, find people and organizations to follow, and create a following for yourself or your business. Please sign up at the Reference Desk or by calling 978-897-1010 x103.

Download Disney Digital Books to your E-Reader or Computer

OverDrive recently announced the addition of over 700 new Disney e-books to its digital collection. These include some of the classics Disney has become so successful on, such as Winnie the Pooh, 101 Dalmations, Aladdin, etc. and will also include contemporary e-books that children will love like Wizards of Waverly Place and Hannah Montana.

The books are geared for any reading level and perfect for children to read along too.  Each online book is integrated into the catalog so users can discover the titles through normal browsing. In addition, users can select the “Disney Online Books” format in the Advanced Search. When users check out a title and then click on the “Launch” button, the book will open in the web browser.

The other great thing is that unlike most other e-books in the OverDrive collection, the books are always available for checkout and you don't have to go on any wait lists.

Happy Reading!

Paper or e-file. How do you file your taxes?

"My goal is to have nobody file on paper." -Massachusetts Department of Revenue Commissioner Amy Pitter

Interesting article in the Boston Globe yesterday that features one of the library's most asked about questions this time of year, tax forms! http://bostonglobe.com/business/2013/03/11/massachusetts-taxpayers-please-file-taxes-online/O9wEN1rS5JxBsk6aLjjIIL/story.html

It's no secret that the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) and the IRS want more people e-file their taxes rather than send out paper forms. It's cheaper for them to process electronically and they don't have to spend all that money on paper. Massachusetts alone spends over $1 million dollars on printing out their tax booklets. The IRS estimates that it spends $3.50 in processing each paper tax form opposed to $.15 per tax form electronically. If you feel comfortable

That said, there are still a lot of people that simply don't have access to accounting software to do it online or don't feel comfortable enough with computers to do them online and understandably so. The state and IRS have been somewhat reluctant in sending out extra copies of tax booklets we need, but the demand here has been very strong. Libraries and other community centers will continue to provide tax forms, but I have to say that the IRS is making it more difficult to keep up with the demand for them. Thank you for your patience while we were waiting for instruction booklets, especially the 1040, and I'm happy to say that we have just about everything tax-related you could need. Anything that we don't currently have in stock can also be printed from a library computer.

On a related note about taxes, we're lucky to have the volunteers of AARP come in to the library three times a week to assist people in preparing their taxes. AARP Tax Aid is the largest free, volunteer-run tax preparation and assistance program in the U.S. The program serves low and middle income taxpayers with special attention to those age 60 and older. If you're interested in setting up an appointment at the library, call Bill Cranshaw with AARP at 978-760-9146

Welcome to our blog / Maynard Book Festival Announcement

Hello Maynard (and beyond),

Welcome to the Maynard Public Library's blog! Here we're going to keep you informed, entertained, and in touch with what is going on in the worlds of this library, other libraries, technology, books, and anything else we deem awesome enough to be put on here.

Check back here often or consider subscribing to the blog using Google Reader or any other RSS feed reader you prefer to use.

What better way to start our blog with the announcement of our 2nd Annual Maynard Book Festival? We had such a great time last year and so many of you came for the programs that we've decided to make it an annual event! This year's will be held on Saturday, April 13th and the theme will be "Celebrating Massachusetts Authors."

The library will host author presentations, a kids art activity, a special open house just for Maynard authors, a blogging workshop (I'm new at this so I'll be there too!), a history panel featuring several Massachusetts authors, and an interview with Gregory Maguire, the author of the Wicked Years series.

Click here for a list of the events we'll be having throughout the day. We hope you're able to join us for the festival!